‘My little angel’: Sister of final yacht victim Hannah Lynch speaks for first time since tragedy

Published

10 months ago

August 24, 2024

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The Lynch family have said they are “devastated” and “in shock” but are being “comforted and supported by family and friends” after the Bayesian superyacht tragedy.

British tech tycoon Mike Lynch, 59, was confirmed dead by local authorities on Thursday after the yacht he was holidaying on sunk in the early hours of Monday.

Family release statement; superyacht sinking latest

Divers recovered the final missing body from the wreckage on Friday, which is believed to be that of his 18-year-old daughter Hannah. Her mother and Mr Lynch’s wife Angela Bacares survived the disaster.

‘She is my little angel, my star’

Miss Lynch’s sister, Esme, said in a statement on Friday: “Hannah often burst into my bedroom and lay down with me.

“Sometimes beaming with a smile, sometimes cheeky, sometimes for advice.

“No matter what, she brought boundless love to me. She was endlessly caring, passionately mad, unintentionally hilarious and the most amazing, supportive and joyful sister and best friend to me.

“And on top of all this, she had even more love to give endlessly to all her friends and passion to give to her incredible studies and goals. She is my little angel, my star.”

A spokesperson for the family said in a statement on Friday: “The Lynch family is devastated, in shock and is being comforted and supported by family and friends.

“Their thoughts are with everyone affected by the tragedy. They would like to sincerely thank the Italian coastguard, emergency services and all those who helped in the rescue. Their one request now is that their privacy be respected at this time of unspeakable grief.”

Tributes have since poured in for both members of the family.

‘Lit up the classroom’

Miss Lynch “lit up the classroom with her energy, passion for learning and sheer intelligence”, Jon Mitropoulos-Monk, head of English at Latymer Upper School in west London, said.

“I’ve never taught someone who combined sky-high intellectual ability with warmth and enthusiasm in the way Hannah did,” he said on Friday.

He added that when she was awarded her place to study at Oxford she sought out every member of staff to “thank them individually and give them a hug”.

Family friend Patrick Jacob said he has “never met anybody like Hannah”, describing her as “charming and ferociously intelligent with an insatiable thirst for life and knowledge”.

“We have lost one of our brightest stars whose future held so much promise. Her loss is unbearable,” he added.

Miss Lynch’s school friend Katya Lacie said she had a “beautiful soul”.

“Being with Hannah made me feel whole and happy. She is the most special friend anyone could ask for and I will always love Hannah,” she said.

Andrew Kanter, a close friend and former colleague of her father, described Mr Lynch as “the most brilliant mind and caring person I have ever known”.

“There is simply no other UK technology entrepreneur of our generation who has had such an impact on so many people,” he said.

Sushovan Hussain, a school friend and former colleague of Mr Lynch, also knew Morgan Stanley chairman Jonathan Bloom, his wife Judy, and Mr Lynch’s lawyer Chris Morvillo, who also died when the yacht sunk.

He said Mr Lynch’s death “leaves an unfillable hole in my life”, adding it is “tragic beyond words”.

‘A heart as big as his brain’

Family friend Albert Read said he “never met anyone like Mike”.

Mr Read described him as “a searing intellect, a steel that would transform the world around him, an instinct for family and friends – organising children’s treasure hunts, big gatherings of neighbours in Suffolk – and, with Angela, a determination to light up the worlds of art and science for his two beloved daughters.

“Warm, funny, brilliant, loyal and exceptionally brave, with a heart as big as his brain.”

‘Fantastic neighbour’

Ruth Leigh lived next door to Mr Lynch in Suffolk for 15 years.

On Thursday, she described them as “fantastic neighbours” and said the tech tycoon “never played on his position” and was “very friendly and down-to-earth” despite his fortune.

“Even though they were wealthy and influential people there was never any airs and graces,” Ms Leigh told Sky News.

“He always went to the trouble of remembering your name, of asking after your partner or your children. From the very start they were fantastic neighbours – very friendly and down-to-earth.

“He’d come from a very ordinary background and through his own brains and intellect, he’d made a really great company and come up with some incredible ground-breaking tech. He was always very moral. He gave to charity very generously and never played on his position.”

She described his death so soon after the end of his legal troubles as “the saddest thing I’ve ever heard”.

“The whole point about this trip to Italy was taking his friends and family to say thank you. That’s what makes it even more tragic,” she added.

“Losing somebody so kind, compassionate, and full of integrity must leave a hole that cannot be filled.”

Mr Lynch was extradited to the US and spent a year under house arrest in San Francisco before he was cleared of 15 charges of fraud earlier this summer by a jury.

Prosecutors claimed he deliberately overstated the value of Autonomy, the company he founded in 1996, when he sold it to Hewlett Packard in 2011. He always denied wrongdoing.

‘Brain the size of a planet’

His former colleague told Sky News on Thursday he had a “brain the size of a planet” and was a “lovely man”.

David Tabizel co-founded Autonomy with Mr Lynch and the pair remained good friends. He described him as a “remarkable individual” and the “brightest man I’ve met in my life”.

“He had a remarkable set of personality traits that we rarely see in Britain,” he said.

“Before him there was no British tech scene. He showed us we can be world-class.”

Mr Tabizel told of Mr Lynch’s “inner child”, that he “loved video games”, had a life-size train set in his garden, and how they animated a cartoon dog for their office, for which they both recorded the “barking noises”.

Commenting on his legal struggles, Mr Tabizel said he “never heard him lie or exaggerate” and he was “interested in the truth… in cutting through the noise”.

“For him to be accused of manipulating his profits. It was an extraordinary thing. It just wasn’t Mike. I loved that man and he should be celebrated as a hero.”

David Yelland, Mr Lynch’s former PR adviser and former editor of The Sun newspaper, paid tribute to him in a post on X.

He said: “All those that knew and loved Mike are thinking of Angela and their surviving daughter Esme as they struggle to come to terms with such unimaginable loss.

“We have lost a man who was failed in life by his country and his peers when he needed them most – as he looked for help in the unjust US demand that he be extradited – and he has then suffered the most unfair and brutal of fates.”

Mr Yelland said he had spoken to Mr Lynch just before he set sail on the yacht.

He also described him as a “dreamer of dreams not just for himself but for all those that knew him, worked with him or invested with him”.

The entrepreneur had “exciting plans to contribute much more to the country he loved,” he added.

Lord Browne, former chief executive of BP and now chairman of BeyondNetZero, said Mr Lynch was “the person who catalysed a breed of deep tech entrepreneurs in the UK”.

“His ideas and his personal vision were a powerful contribution to science and technology in both Britain and globally. We have lost a human being of great ability,” he wrote.

‘Privileged to have known him’

Sky’s Ian King said he “feels very privileged to have known and spoken with Mike Lynch over many years”.

He described him as a “visionary and original thinker with a passion for building businesses”. “There are sadly too few like him in the UK,” he added.

The Royal Academy of Engineering, where Mr Lynch was a former council member, donor, and mentor, said it is “deeply saddened to learn of the death of Mike Lynch”.

Sending condolences to his family, they added: “Mike became a fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2008 and we have fond memories of the active role he played in the past as a mentor, donor, and former council member. He was also one of the inaugural members on the enterprise committee.”

A spokesperson for technology industry group TechUK said: “Mike Lynch was a hugely significant and pioneering figure in the UK technology sector.

“Our hearts go out to all of the families and friends who have been impacted by these tragic events,” they said.

Mr Lynch’s Autonomy software was based on Bayesian statistical inference – where his family’s ill-fated yacht got its name.

The software’s global success earned him a reputation as the “British Bill Gates” and enabled companies to trawl through huge swathes of data more efficiently.

His Cambridge thesis is thought to be one of the most-read pieces of research in the institution’s library.

There was huge outcry from politicians and business leaders when Home Secretary Priti Patel approved a judge’s extradition order for him to be sent to the US for trial in 2023.

World

Gaza aid group reacts to claims American contractors fired at starving Palestinians

Published

12 hours ago

July 4, 2025

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Gaza aid group reacts to claims American contractors fired at starving Palestinians

Israeli-backed American contractors guarding aid centres in Gaza are using live ammunition and stun grenades as starving Palestinians scramble for food, an investigation has claimed.

The Associated Press has reported the accounts by two contractors from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), although the organisation has strongly denied the allegations, describing them as “categorically false”.

GHF was established in February to deliver desperately needed aid to people in the besieged enclave, but its work has been heavily criticised by international aid groups.

It has also been subject to intense scrutiny about its operations, which Sky News previously reported are associated with a significant increase in deaths.

AP’s claims, which have not been independently verified by Sky News, came from GHF contractors who spoke on condition of anonymity as they were revealing their employer’s internal operations.

They said they were motivated to speak out as they were disturbed by what they considered dangerous practices by security staff who were often heavily armed.

AP reported the contractors had claimed “their colleagues regularly lobbed stun grenades and pepper spray in the direction of the Palestinians” and “bullets were fired in all directions – in the air, into the ground and at times toward the Palestinians, recalling at least one instance where he thought someone had been hit”.

Contractor: ‘Innocent people being hurt’

“There are innocent people being hurt. Badly. Needlessly,” the contractor told AP.

Videos reportedly provided by one contractor show aid sites, located in Israeli military-controlled zones, with hundreds of Palestinians crammed between metal gates, scrambling to reach aid.

In the background, gunfire can be heard, and stun grenades are allegedly fired into crowds.

The footage does not show who was shooting or what was being shot at, but another video shows contractors in a compound, when bursts of gunfire can be heard. One man is then heard shouting in celebration: “Whoo! Whoo!”.

“I think you hit one,” another says, followed by the comment: “Hell, yeah, boy!”

The contractor who took the video told AP that colleagues were shooting in the direction of Palestinians.

According to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry and witnesses, several hundred people have been killed and hundreds more wounded since the GHF sites started operating more than a month ago, amid claims by Palestinians of Israeli troops opening fire almost every day at crowds seeking to reach the aid.

In response, Israel’s military says it fires only warning shots and is investigating reports of civilian harm. It denies deliberately shooting at any innocent civilians and says it’s examining how to reduce “friction with the population” in the areas surrounding the distribution centres.

GHF attacks ‘false claims’

GHF has vehemently denied the accusations, adding that it has investigated AP’s allegations.

In a statement on X, GHF wrote: “Based on time-stamped video footage and sworn witness statements, we have concluded that the claims in the AP’s story are categorically false. At no point were civilians under fire at a GHF distribution site.

“The gunfire heard in the video was confirmed to have originated from the IDF, who was outside the immediate vicinity of the GHF distribution site.

“It was not directed at individuals, and no one was shot or injured. What is most troubling is that the AP refused to share the full video with us prior to publication, despite the seriousness of the allegations.”

Safe Reach Solutions, the logistics company subcontracted by GHF, told the AP there have been no serious injuries at any of their sites to date.

But the organisation admitted that, in isolated incidents, security professionals fired live rounds into the ground and away from civilians to get their attention.

A Safe Reach Solutions spokesperson told AP this happened at the start of their operations at “the height of desperation where crowd control measures were necessary for the safety and security of civilians”.

World

Liverpool football star Diogo Jota killed in car crash

Published

18 hours ago

July 4, 2025

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Liverpool football star Diogo Jota killed in car crash

Liverpool star Diogo Jota has died in a car crash.

The 28-year-old Portuguese forward died in the accident in the early hours of Thursday morning near Zamora, in northwestern Spain.

His brother, Andre Silva, was also killed in the crash on the Rias Bajas Highway (A-52) near Palacios de Sanabria, heading towards Benavente.

Follow the latest updates following Diogo Jota’s death

Jota and Silva were driving to Santander to catch a ferry back to England ahead of the start of Liverpool’s pre-season training on Monday, CNN Portugal reports.

The news outlet reports that Jota was advised against flying back to England due to recent surgery.

Police said the accident happened at 12.30am when the Lamborghini the pair were travelling in veered off the road.

“A vehicle left the road and everything indicates a tyre burst while overtaking,” the Guardia Civil in Zamora told Sky Sports News in a statement.

“As a result of the accident, the car caught fire and both people were killed. Pending the completion of forensic tests, one of the deceased has been identified as Diogo Jota, a Liverpool FC player, and his brother, Andre Felipe.”

A Spanish government source told the PA news agency that police were investigating the crash as “a possible speeding incident”.

Police added that no other vehicles were involved in the incident.

Pictures of the aftermath of the crash showed debris scattered along the side of the road, including what appeared to be charred parts of the vehicle.

It comes just 10 days after the player married his long-term girlfriend, Rute Cardoso.

He had three children.

The footballer, who played as a striker for Liverpool, began his career in his native Portugal and played at Atletico Madrid in Spain before moving to England.

He joined the Merseyside club from Wolverhampton Wanderers in 2020.

Jota played an important role throughout his five years with the Reds, including scoring six times in Liverpool’s recent Premier League-winning season.

He scored a total of 47 times in 123 matches for the club. He also played 49 times for the Portugal national side, scoring 14 times.

Silva, 25, played for Penafiel, a Portuguese second division club.

Teammates and football legends pay tribute

A statement issued by Liverpool FC said the club was “devastated” by their player’s death.

“The club have been informed the 28-year-old has passed away following a road traffic accident in Spain along with his brother, Andre,” the club said in a statement.

“Liverpool FC will be making no further comment at this time and request the privacy of Diogo and Andre’s family, friends, teammates and club staff is respected as they try to come to terms with an unimaginable loss.

“We will continue to provide them with our full support.”

The Portuguese football federation said it was “utterly devastated by the deaths”.

“Far beyond being an exceptional player, with nearly 50 caps for the national team, Diogo Jota was an extraordinary person, respected by all teammates and opponents, someone with a contagious joy and a reference within his own community.

“We have lost two champions. The passing of Diogo and Andre Silva represents irreparable losses for Portuguese Football, and we will do everything to honour their legacy daily.”

The Portugal and Spain women’s teams held a minute’s silence for Jota and Silva before their match in the Women’s Euros in Switzerland on Thursday evening.

It came after Liverpool’s manager Arne Slot said in a statement: “What can anyone say at a time like this when the shock and the pain is so incredibly raw? I wish I had the words but I know I do not.

“All I have are feelings that I know so many people will share about a person and a player we loved dearly and a family we care so much about.

“My first thoughts are not those of a football manager. They are of a father, a son, a brother and an uncle and they belong to the family of Diogo and Andre Silva who have experienced such an unimaginable loss.”

Jota’s former manager at Liverpool, Jurgen Klopp, offered his thoughts in a post on Instagram.

“This is a moment where I struggle! There must be a bigger purpose, but I can’t see it,” he said.

“I’m heartbroken to hear about the passing of Diogo and his brother Andre. Diogo was not only a fantastic player, but also a great friend, a loving and caring husband and father.

“We will miss you so much. All my prayers, thoughts and power to Rute, the kids, the family, the friends and everyone who loved them.”

Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk posted on Instagram: “What a human being, what a player, but most importantly what an unbelievable family man.

“You mean so much to all of us and you always will!”

Cristiano Ronaldo, Jota’s captain in the national team, said: “It doesn’t make sense. Just now we were together in the National Team, just now you had gotten married.

“To your family, your wife, and your children, I send my condolences and wish them all the strength in the world.

“I know you will always be with them. Rest in Peace, Diogo and Andre. We will all miss you.”

Jota’s Liverpool teammates Darwin Nunez, Cody Gakpo and Dominik Szoboszlai have also paid tribute.

Szoboszlai wrote: “Words cannot describe how heartbroken and devastated we are… Your smile, your love for the game will never be forgotten.

“We will miss you so much, but you will stay with us forever, on and off the pitch.”

Jota’s former teammates Trent Alexander-Arnold, Sadio Mane, Roberto Firmino and Thiago Alcantara have also shared messages on social media.

Mane posted a picture of himself and Jota with heartbreak emojis.

It came as Liverpool legend Kenny Dalglish wrote on X: “You feel helpless, knowing there’s so little we can do to ease the pain for his wife of just two weeks, his three beautiful children.”

Liverpool legend Steven Gerrard shared an image of Jota on Instagram and wrote: “Condolences to his family and friends during this incredibly sad time.”

Liverpool owners Billy Hogan, John Henry and Tom Werner, who are part of the Fenway Sports Group, said: “This tragic situation and the reality of it is truly shocking, devastating and has left us numb with grief.”

Football icon Lionel Messi has also paid tribute, sharing an image of Jota on Instagram with the message “QEPD” – short for the Spanish phrase ‘que en paz descanse’, which translates to “may he rest in peace'”.

European football clubs such as Barcelona and AC Milan have also shared messages, along with basketball player LeBron James and tennis icon Rafael Nadal.

Meanwhile Liverpool FC have opened a physical and digital book of condolence for supporters and members of the public to sign.

The physical book is at the club’s stadium, in the Anfield Road Stand reception area until Sunday evening.

An avid video gamer, Jota also owned an eSports team and regularly streamed on Twitch.

World

Iran: Still a chance for peace talks with US

Published

24 hours ago

July 3, 2025

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Iran: Still a chance for peace talks with US

Iran’s foreign ministry has told Sky News there is still a chance for peace talks with the United States.

In an interview in Iran’s foreign ministry in Tehran, a senior Iranian official said despite the attacks on his country by America and Israel, back-channel efforts are under way to restart the search for a diplomatic solution.

The comments will be seen as an olive branch for the Trump administration to seize as it explores a diplomatic way forward.

Sky News is one of only a handful of foreign news organisations allowed access to Iran following its short and devastating war with Israel.

We also filmed the impact of Israel’s attacks on ordinary Iranians in Tehran.

In the wake of a ceasefire declared by Donald Trump, Esmaeil Baqaei, the Iranian foreign ministry spokesman, said the US must show it is genuine in its desire for peace.

“Diplomacy must not be abused or used as a tool for deception or for simply a sort of psychological warfare against their adversaries.”

Iran felt diplomacy had been betrayed, he said. US-Iranian talks were on the verge of reconvening when Israel attacked his country.

And America had breached international law in its support of what he called “Zionist aggression”.

But Mr Baqaei said “diplomacy never ends, there are contacts, indirectly. My minister is talking to Oman, Qatar and others”.

President Trump says he is ready to talk with Iran, but major stumbling blocks need to be overcome.

The US wants Iran to give up nuclear enrichment completely. Iran has long insisted it has the right to carry on.

Across town, we witnessed the impact of Israel’s attacks in Gisha, an upmarket neighbourhood of Tehran.

Israel claims its attacks on Iranian figures were precision-targeted. In reality they appear to have been far from surgical.

The airstrike came at 10.30 Friday morning two weeks ago. It ripped a hole through four floors of reinforced concrete in the residential apartment block.

The target may have been a nuclear scientist living there, but everyone in the building is now without a home. Engineers say it will almost certainly need to be torn down.

The mood in the Iranian capital seems subdued and tense.

Iranians fear Israelis will renew their air campaign despite the ceasefire, but the foreign ministry spokesperson said they “will respond” to any Israeli attack.

There is widespread resentment of the leadership after nationwide social unrest and massive economic problems.

But the Israeli attacks have rallied many Iranians around their government all the same.

They had hoped diplomacy with America could deliver a new deal and an end to sanctions, then Israel began its 12-day aerial onslaught and the US joined in.

Iranians hope somehow talks can be restarted, but they also know the chances of progress are, for now at least, not great.